People are loving the new gender-swapping Snapchat filter, and it's now being used to catfish unsuspecting men on Tinder (SNAP)

Snapchat recently released new AR lenses that let users add traditionally female or male features to their visual appearance.

People have started using the eerily convincing lens to trick friends and strangers into thinking they’re someone else.

Some men have created Tinder profiles for women using their female-appearing filtered faces, and have started to realized the type of messages women often receive on dating apps.

Since debuting the new lens, Snapchat has seen its app downloaded by an estimated seven million new users.

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Snapchat may have found a way to fight its decreasing popularity among teens with a new lens filter that’s getting a lot of attention from users.

The latest AR lenses from Snapchat allows users to change their appearance to include facial features that are traditionally male or female. For the male-appearing lens, that translates to adding a five-o-clock shadow, thicker eyebrows, a widened jawline, and attempt to blur out long hair. With the female-appearing filter, Snapchat adds smoother skin, thicker eyelashes, long hair, and a leaner face and jawline.

Read more: A new survey shows that Snapchat is still the favorite social platform among Gen Z — but it’s not the app teens are using the most

Looking on social media, the gender-changing filter seems to be particular popular among men. While the male-appearing filter on women does work, the female-appearing lens on men is must more realistic. Men have posted their transformed looks after applying the Snapchat filter, and it’s often hard to tell that it’s a digitally created female-appearing person.

Girls with the new snapchat filter vs guys pic.twitter.com/hV1A2gubSn

— Bryan (@diplobruh) May 12, 2019

Some people have already started to use the feature for slightly more nefarious purposes than just playing around with their appearances in Snapchat: Several men have posted online they’ve created fake Tinder profiles using their computer generated female-appearing faces, and have found success with their catfishing attempts.

So rather than going out, me & SJ decided to see how far Jess could go on tinder.. within an hour I was the most popular girl in Derby. pic.twitter.com/Mwgw8KjDdw

— Jake (@J_Askew) May 11, 2019

My brother’s using the snapchat filter to catfish guys on tinder and it’s absolutely seen me off. HOW do these men think that is a real woman’s face?? pic.twitter.com/h8JVE8u7bS

— han 🏳️‍🌈🦈 (@Cans4Hans) May 12, 2019

I made a tinder for Ewald with the girl Snapchat filter and I guess a lot of guys thinks he’s pretty attractive 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/4EmfDgy7dx

— jason burnham (@jburny99) May 12, 2019

These fake Tinder profiles have also brought to light the type of abuse many women are subjected to on dating apps. Some men have begun posting on Twitter about how their female-appearing profiles were inundated with matches and often-vulgar messages from male suitors.

“I made a Tinder using that female Snapchat filter and holy f— did I make a mistake,” one Twitter user wrote.

I made a Tinder using the new Snapchat filter to see what would happen, and these are the fucking messages I got

I feel for you women everywhere if this is what your inboxes actually look like pic.twitter.com/MBOwpZuDTg

— 🕸 Snapchat: MoshWithTyler 🕸 (@MoshWithTyler) May 12, 2019

Used the Snapchat filter on tinder for 30 minutes, and in conclusion I hate men. pic.twitter.com/WfzhKqVpmE

— Mohi (@MohimenMahbuba) May 12, 2019

Life update:

I made a Tinder using that female Snapchat filter and holy fuck did I make a mistake. pic.twitter.com/nitAzDwxTV

— Garrett Mumford (@fuckgarrett) May 13, 2019

Even “Catfish” host Nev Schulman got in on the fun, and lamented at how the filter was “really, really not good.”

Why Snapchat, why? #catfish pic.twitter.com/b8nr30C0LX

— Nev Schulman (@NevSchulman) May 12, 2019

Still, since its debut, the feature has been wildly popular.

Many on social media have posted saying they’ve re-downloaded Snapchat or created a new account just to be able to use the new filter. In the five days since Snapchat rolled out the new lens filter, seven million people across iPhone and Android have installed the Snapchat app for the first time, according to data from Sensor Tower.

That’s a huge increase above how many new users Snapchat usually draws in: During the same five-day time span a week before, Sensor Tower reports the app was only downloaded three million times, which means there’s been a 133% increase in the amount of new Snapchat downloads, a significant jump for an app that has been seeing its daily user base shrink.

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